How Object Storage Protects You From Ransomware

Did you know that ransomware strikes multiple times every minute? It’s a huge and growing threat, so the logical question is how can your organization protect itself.

You can harden your systems, work diligently on security awareness, and redouble your efforts to prevent malware infections – which are all important. But complex systems result in a complex array of vulnerabilities, and it only takes one to become a victim.

That’s why it’s so important to have an attack-proof recovery strategy in place. One way to thwart ransomware’s encryption is through secure backup. If you can roll back to a previous version of your data – captured before the infection occurred – you can bypass the infection by performing a restore and get back into business.

But just any old backup won’t work. Ransomware can also attack the backup files themselves.  Without the right approach, you can re-infect yourself during a restore.

Forrester analysts write:

“Implementing an immutable file system with underlying WORM storage will make the system watertight from a ransomware protection perspective.”

GET THE FORRESTER REPORT

What’s needed is the ability to store data in a manner in which the data is unchangeable – something Cloudian HyperStore does as a natural part of its operation. Block and file storage structures are readily encrypted, making them great targets for ransomware. But object storage can be made immutable – data remains as written — with WORM (Write Once, Read Many) technology. Cloudian’s WORM feature allows HyperStore to protect data for the retention period you specify. During that time, the data can neither be modified nor deleted, creating an additional security layer. Furthermore, the data is immediately accessible, eliminating the need for a lengthy backup process.

Cloudian’s policy-based data protection features also let you replicate that data to multiple sites, or to the public cloud if desired. So your data is protected from site-specific threats as well.

In the event of a malware attack, restoring your data becomes a simple task of recovery. Administrators roll back to the last snapshot before the ransomware was executed, perform a restore, and your data is back in business.

In the past, WORM technology required specialized storage devices and a workflow that accommodated them. But now object storage systems equipped with a new feature called “Object Lock” deliver WORM functionality within an enterprise storage system. This means that the data is protected at the device level, rather than needing an external layer for defense.

Another advantage is that Object Lock is a standardized feature supported by multiple data protection software platforms. IT managers can, therefore, leverage Object Lock within an automated workflow, eliminating the need to separately manage protected copies of data.

Learn more about how WORM/Object Lock can protect you against ransomware.

Visit our Ransomware Solutions page.

forrester report

Forrester Report:
Four Technologies Combine to Protect You From Ransomware Attacks

GET THE REPORT

Other Related Articles:

Object Storage vs. File Storage

Object Storage vs. Block Storage

 

Cloudian Achieves Veeam Ready – Object Qualification

veeam ready object storage

Cloudian Achieves Veeam Ready – Object Qualification

Today Cloudian was honored to be among the first to receive Veeam’s new object storage certification. Called Veeam Ready – Object, this qualification gives storage administrators a worry-free, out-of-the-box integrated path to employ Cloudian object storage as a backup target for Veeam.

Veeam and Cloudian have been working together to meet the data protection needs of customers (enterprise, corporate, service providers, governmental) for several years now. In Jan 2019, Veeam made the solution integration even better with the launch of Veeam Availability Suite 9.5 Update 4. This release added native support for S3-compatible storage targets through the Veeam Cloud Tier offering.

Because Cloudian offers the storage industry’s best S3 compatibility, Veeam data protection customers are now able to take full advantage of HyperStore’s limitless scale and value benefits as a backup, archive, and disaster recovery storage target.

veeam cloudian solution

The new Veeam Ready – Object qualification ratifies this integration. Veeam’s rigorous qualification process stresses the storage platform backup with workloads consisting of 1M+ objects.  They require the entire write operation (Scale-Out Backup Repository – SOBR offload) to complete in less than 4.5 hours. A bulk delete must also complete in 4.5 hours. These criteria are representative of real-world scenarios where a backup chain of an expected size would be offloaded as well as an expired backup chain be deleted from Cloudian HyperStore object storage.

Veeam Ready – Object qualification ensures confidence to joint Veeam-Cloudian customers and prospects that the join solution — Veeam Cloud Tier and Cloudian HyperStore object storage — will function properly and perform at a level that satisfies the expected customer workload, even when the data requirement scales to a large size distributed across multiple locations.

To learn more about the solution please visit cloudian.com/veeam/

Mobile Video Surveillance Solution for Montebello Bus Lines

Mobile video surveillance can do a lot to ensure safety on transit systems. After all, bus and train operators must focus on operating their vehicles, not on policing riders.

Real-time mobile video surveillance would allow one staff member to monitor multiple vehicles, which could save cost and increase safety.

The problem is this: traditional technologies record video on the vehicle for later retrieval after the vehicle returns home. The obvious problem here is the lack of a real-time view. When an incident occurs, you can only see what happened after-the-fact.

Also, when an incident occurs finding the relevant clip takes a long time. The manual process consumes expensive resources and slows a response.

A better video surveillance answer was devised by the City of Montebello. View this video to learn more.

The Challenges in Storing Video Surveillance

Montebello Bus Lines currently operates 72 buses that serve over 8 million passengers a year, and each bus houses five cameras and a recording system. All videos were only recorded locally on the buses. Transferring the data into the operations center at the end of the day took time.

Then, MBL had to manually locate clips using time codes. This made it difficult to follow up on reported incidents in a timely manner.

Another storage issue was budget. Budget limitations meant MBL couldn’t keep the video data for more than a few days. If someone filed a complaint after the video was deleted, the city of Montebello would face financial risk.

Finding the Answer in Object Storage

What MBL needed was the ability to wirelessly upload video in addition to storing the data locally. This would allow for immediate review by transit staff or law enforcement and would serve as an additional layer of backup to prevent data loss.

MBL first tried using a Network Attached Storage (NAS) system, but the problem with NAS is that the entry systems simply aren’t fast enough while the better performing systems are cost-prohibitive. Another challenge was the file structure, which did not allow graceful transfer over a wireless network. An interrupted transfer resulted in re-starting the process. Finally, NAS systems allowed limited metadata tagging, containing only the most basic information.

Backing up video surveillance with Cloudian

But this is where Cloudian steps in. With Cloudian and Transportation Security Systems (TSS) IRIS, MBL is now able to add metadata tagging on their videos. The metadata search also makes it easier to locate videos based on parameters such as time, location, vehicle, and more.

Large clips are broken into smaller pieces before being transferred concurrently, resulting in better reliability and successful use of wireless data transfers. Additionally, object storage is more cost-efficient, meaning it’s easy (and affordable) to scale up as more videos are stored.

David Tsuen, IT Manager for the City of Montebello, stated that “Cloudian and TSS together allowed us to solve a very challenging problem. We now have a path to significant cost savings for the City and a safer experience for our riders. That’s a genuine win-win.”

You can learn more about how we solved MBL’s challenges by reading our case study, or you can try Cloudian out for yourself with our free trial.

 

Cloudian Moves Private Cloud Beyond Backup

In a data protection application, Cloudian acts as a backup target. To excel in this role, the system of course needs to be scalable, fast, and cost effective. But most importantly, it must ensure that data is never, ever corrupted or lost. Fortunately, data durability was the #1 design goal of Cloudian HyperStore.

Storage Switzerland recently wrote a product analysis of our HyperStore solution, and the verdict is very positive. Read on to understand why Cloudian is “an ideal storage target for backups and archives” and “a system that organizations should seriously consider for all their storage needs.”

Effective Backup and Archive

In a data protection application, Cloudian acts as a backup target. To excel in this role, the system of course needs to be scalable, fast, and cost-effective. But most importantly, it must ensure that data is never, ever corrupted or lost. Fortunately, data durability was the #1 design goal of Cloudian HyperStore. Our HyperStore object storage solution offers robust data protection features that can protect your data from incidents of all kinds, including drive failure, node failure, even the failure of an entire data center, if that’s the level you require.

Features that support our 14-nines data durability include:

  • Erasure coding
  • Data replication across nodes or across sites
  • Hybrid cloud integration, that enables replication to the public cloud
  • Proactive repair
  • Data GPS, which helps you locate objects
  • Repair-on-Read, which automatically checks replicas for missing or out-of-date copies and then replaces or updates them
  • Smart Redirect, which creates a local cache replication as well as an Amazon S3 copy

Beyond backup applications, Cloudian HyperStore can play multiple other roles within your data center.

 

Multiple Applications, One Storage Pool

Other Cloudian use cases include:

  • NAS file server offload
  • Media archive management
  • File sync and share storage

Because Cloudian is a scale-out cluster, all of these can co-exist in a single, limitlessly scalable namespace.

We offer both a software solution and multiple hardware appliances which let you start with a small deployment (a few dozen TBs) and then scale up to multiple PBs and beyond.

 

AI and Machine Learning: The Future of Object Storage

Soon you will be seeing object storage widely used in the next big storage driver: data pools that support AI and Machine Learning. Object is ideal for this due to its scalability and integrated metadata support.

Check out the Storage Switzerland piece to learn more. You can read the full piece here or check out our solutions.

 

Object Storage Bucket-Level Auto-Tiering with Cloudian

As discussed in my previous blog post, ‘An Introduction to Data Tiering’, there is huge value in using different storage tiers within a data storage architecture to ensure that your different data sets are stored on the appropriate technology. Now I’d like to explain how the Cloudian HyperStore system supports object storage ‘auto-tiering’, whereby objects can be automatically moved from local HyperStore storage to a destination storage system on a predefined schedule based upon data lifecycle policies.

As discussed in my previous blog post, ‘An Introduction to Data Tiering’, there is huge value in using different storage tiers within a data storage architecture to ensure that your different data sets are stored on the appropriate technology. Now I’d like to explain how the Cloudian HyperStore system supports object storage ‘auto-tiering’, whereby objects can be automatically moved from local HyperStore storage to a destination storage system on a predefined schedule based upon data lifecycle policies.

Cloudian HyperStore can be integrated with any of the following destination cloud storage platforms as a target for tiered data:

  • Amazon S3
  • Amazon Glacier
  • Google Cloud Platform
  • Any Cloud service offering S3 API connectivity
  • A remotely located Cloudian HyperStore cluster

Granular Control with Cloudian HyperStore

For any data storage system, granularity of control and management is extremely important –  data sets often have varying management requirements with the need to apply different Service Level Agreements (SLAs) as appropriate to the value of the data to an organisation.

Cloudian HyperStore provides the ability to manage data at the bucket level, providing flexibility at a granular level to allow SLA and management control (note: a “bucket” is an S3 data container, similar to a LUN in block storage or a file system in NAS systems). HyperStore provides the following as control parameters at the bucket level:

  • Data protection – Select from replication or erasure coding of data, plus single or multi-site data distribution
  • Consistency level – Control of replication techniques (synchronous vs asynchronous)
  • Access permissions – User and group control access to data
  • Disaster recovery – Data replication to public cloud
  • Encryption – Data at rest protection for security compliance
  • Compression – Reduction of the effective raw storage used to store data objects
  • Data size threshold – Variable storage location of data based upon the data object size
  • Lifecycle policies – Data management rules for tiering and data expiration

Cloudian HyperStore manages data tiering via lifecycle policies as can be seen in the image below:

Auto-tiering is configurable on a per-bucket basis, with each bucket allowed different lifecycle policies based upon rules. Examples of these include:

  1.      Which data objects to apply the lifecycle rule to. This can include:
  • All objects in the bucket
  • Objects for which the name starts with a specific prefix (such as prefix “Meetings/2015/”)
  1.      The tiering schedule, which can be specified using one of three methods:
  • Move objects X number of days after they’re created
  • Move objects if they go X number of days without being accessed
  • Move objects on a fixed date — such as December 31, 2016

When a data object becomes a candidate for tiering, a small stub object is retained on the HyperStore cluster. The stub acts as a pointer to the actual data object, so the data object still appears as if it’s stored in the local cluster. To the end user, there is no change to the action of accessing data, but the object does display a special icon denoting the fact that the data object has been moved.

For auto-tiering to a Cloud provider such as Amazon or Google, an account is required along with associated account access credentials.

Accessing Data After Auto-Tiering

To access objects after they’ve been auto-tiered to public cloud services, the objects can be accessed either directly through a public cloud platform (using the applicable account and credentials) or via the local HyperStore system. There are three options for retrieving tiered data:

  1.      Restoring objects –   When a user accesses a data file, they are directed to the local stub file held on HyperStore which then redirects the user request to the actual location of the data object (tiered target platform).

A copy of the data object is restored back to a local HyperStore bucket from the tiered storage and the user request will be performed on the data object once copied back. A time limit can be set for how long to retain the retrieved object locally, before returning to the secondary tier.

This is considered the best option to use when accessing data relatively frequently and you want to avoid any performance impact incurred by traversing the internet and any access costs applied by service providers for data access/retrieval. Storage capacity must be managed on the local HyperStore cluster to ensure that there is sufficient “cache” for object retrievals.

  1.      Streaming objects – Streams data directly to the client without restoring the data to the local HyperStore cluster first. When the file is closed, any modifications are made to the object in situ on the tiered location. Any metadata modifications will be updated in both local HyperStore database and on the tiered platform.

This is considered the best option to use when accessing data relatively infrequently and concern about the storage capacity of the local HyperStore cluster is an issue, but performance will be lower as the data requests are traversing the internet and access costs may be applied by the service provider every time this file is read.

  1.      Direct access – Objects auto-tiered to public cloud services can be accessed directly by another application or via your standard public cloud interface, such as the AWS Management Console. This method fully bypasses the HyperStore cluster. Because objects are written to the cloud using the standard S3 API, and include a copy of the object’s metadata, they can be referenced directly.

Storing objects in this openly accessible manner — with co-located rich metadata — is useful in several instances:

  1. A disaster recovery scenario where the HyperStore cluster is not available
  2. Facilitating data migration to another platform
  3. Enabling access from a separate cloud-based application, such as content distribution
  4. Providing open access to data, without reliance on a separate database to provide indexing

HyperStore provides great flexibility for leveraging hybrid cloud deployments where you get to set the policy on which data is stored in a public or private cloud. Learn more about HyperStore here.

 

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Object Storage vs. Block Storage: What’s the Difference?

How to offload your NAS and reclaim capacity, with zero disruption

Running low on NAS capacity? Over 60% of NAS data is typically cold and infrequently accessed. Common examples include old project information, engineering files, historical data, and media that rarely gets used. All of these sit there, consuming capacity and data backup resources. Cloudian and Komprise let you offload that data to on-premises Cloudian storage and immediately reclaim 60% of your Tier 1 NAS capacity.

View this on-demand webinar with Komprise and Cloudian, “How to Delay Your Next NAS Expansion,” to learn more.

 

Transparently Tier Data to Cloudian, at 70% Less Cost

Cloudian/Komprise lets you find and reclaim that costly NAS capacity without user disruption. So you can defer that next NAS purchase.

One of the key benefits of the Cloudian/Komprise solution is that users will see no change in data access. Komprise’s software transparently tiers old or dormant CIFS and NFS files from any filer or server to Cloudian. That data is stored at 70% less cost and is still immediately accessible when requested by users. There are no delays, and no access charges. To the user, nothing has changed.

 

On-Prem Control, Public Cloud Prices

Cloudian gives you on-prem storage at the cost of public cloud. With Cloudian, the storage is in your data center, under your control, at costs down to ½ cent per GB per month. And there are no cloud access charges.

Save on Backup Licenses and Capacity

Unused data costs more than just NAS capacity: you’re also paying for the backup software and data copies. These can more than double your costs. When you migrate that data to Cloudian, it’s protected with nine nines data durability without the cost of a backup license. If you need more protection, you can tier data to a public cloud (such as Amazon S3) for offsite storage. Cloudian’s built-in management tools make that transparent as well.

With Cloudian/Komprise, you save on Tier 1 NAS, save on backup, and get full data protection.

Free Storage Assessment

Contact Cloudian for your free storage assessment. We will analyze the data on your NAS and show you what data is actually being used, and what data hasn’t been touched in months. And then we will provide you a written report and analysis of your potential savings of tiering that dormant data to Cloudian.

 

Reclaim costly NAS capacity and put off that costly expansion. Contact Cloudian today to get started. It’s quick and it’s free.

View the Cloudian/Komprise solution brief for more information.

 

SNL and Object Storage: Archiving Media Assets

Picture all of your media assets today. How much space does it take up and how well does your current storage solution work? Now what if you had over 40 years of assets? Will the same solution work just as efficiently?

Tape storage is currently the preferred method for archiving media assets, but tape is a limited-life solution with many different ways it can be compromised. When thinking long-term, tape becomes less and less viable.

For a prime example on why we need to move away from tape storage, let’s look at Saturday Night Live. One of the longest running network programs in the US, SNL has generated 42 seasons of content consisting of 826 episodes and 2,966 cast members. In terms of data, that’s 42 years worth of archive data made up of multiple petabytes across 2 data centers.

saturday night live logo

That’s a lot of data, and for SNL, having a huge archive is useless unless they can easily access it. That’s why SNL utilized object storage to help digitize and store their 42 years of assets. Each asset can be tagged with as many metadata tags as needed, making it easy and fast to find, organize, and assemble clips from the show’s long history.

If your media assets are just sitting in cold storage, it may be time to rethink your strategy. By creating an efficient archival solution today, you can accelerate your workflows and continue to monetize those assets 40 years from now, just as SNL is doing today.

We’ll be delving further into this topic at NAB along with Matt Yonks, who is the Post Production Supervisor for Saturday Night Live. The session will take place on April 25 at 3:30pm and will include a drawing for a 4K video drone. Register early for extra chances to win!

Cloudian Customer Receives Commvault Innovation Award

Cloudian Customer Receives Commvault Innovation Award for Data Protection with Object Storage

A Cloudian customer, Schuberg Philis, has been recognized by Commvault for their innovation in a data protection deployment with Cloudian object storage. Several aspects of this award-winning solution illustrate advancements that make backup a very exciting topic right now:

  • Object storage as a target: On-premises S3-compatible storage is the backup target in this solution
  • Backup as a service: 3800 clients employ this environment
  • Local and remote backup: Clients being protected are both local (within the Schuberg facility) and remote

Data protection is alive with innovation, and this illustrates why. Data center managers now have more options than ever to reduce headaches, cut costs, and increase service levels.

Object storage helps by providing a seamlessly scalable backup target that a) works with most backup solutions, including Commvault, b) delivers disk performance at costs approaching tape, and c) includes a broad range of capabilities including compression, encryption, and deduplication.

Backup as a service is now more practical than ever, thanks to the S3 protocol that enhances data delivery over network connections.

Schuberg Philis brought these innovations together to offer Data Management as a Service (DMS). This is a multi-tenant data protection solution that’s based on Commvault software and Cloudian storage. It runs within Schuberg Philis’ Mission Critical Cloud Infrastructure.

As a centralized backup and restore platform, DMS includes a wide swath of features such as object storage, SQL AlwaysOn, clustering, and encryption. These features make it easier for customers to manage data protection options without sacrificing data integrity. Commvault took notice and awarded Schuberg Philis a global Service Provider Innovation Award.

We’re very proud that we could be a part of this great solution!

To learn more about the economics of object storage, read this Object Storage Buyer’s Guide. Learn how you too can save a bundle, and beat your SLAs, all with the backup software you already have.

Better Backup With the Software You Already Have

You know the challenges of the backup process. Veritas and Commvault are good products, but backup is still a chore. Your three choices for a backup target all have challenges: Tape is troublesome, disk is expensive, and backup to the cloud is slow.

How to save cost, reduce stress, and keep using the software you already know

The New Backup Target: Hybrid Cloud

You know the challenges of the backup process. Veritas and Commvault are good products, but backup is still a chore. Your three choices for a backup target all have challenges: Tape is troublesome, disk is expensive, and backup to the cloud is slow.

As an IT manager, you pick the best solution you can afford, but you’re often forced to make compromises along the way. Too often, the result is busted backup windows and unmet RTO and RPO SLAs, not to mention hours of wasted time and accumulated stress.

Now there’s a fourth backup target option:  Hybrid Cloud. (see Backup Solutions Note)

Hybrid cloud as a target gives you a faster, more reliable, lower cost process — free of capacity constraints. It works right now with the software you already know. And you can get started at zero upfront cost.

How the Hybrid Cloud Helps

Hybrid cloud integrates an on-premises disk-based target with a cloud-based target. Both the on-prem storage and cloud storage use the same interface and are managed as a single storage pool.

Their respective functions are:

  • On-prem target: Fast disk-backup. Provides predictable backup time; ensures immediate access for RTO/RPO SLAs
  • Public cloud target: DR repository; low-cost and offsite, it provides the ideal long-term archive, plus overflow capacity for limitless scalability

Works with Existing Backup Software

Backup procedures are proven through years of development. And you know well the software you have. The hybrid cloud approach leverages all of that investment and learning by preserving your existing processes.

To the backup software, the hybrid cloud appears exactly as cloud storage. (Connectors to Amazon S3 and other services are now available with most popular backup software.)

With hybrid cloud, that connector is simply directed at the on-prem storage. The on-prem storage then connects to the cloud. The two are managed as a single, limitlessly scalable storage pool.

The on prem S3-compatible storage is then directed at the S3 public cloud for data tiering purposes. The most recent backups — ie, the ones you’re most likely to use — are kept on prem. The older copies are migrated to the cloud.

The combined solution becomes a simple, drop-in replacement for existing backup target technologies. The result: on-site storage for fast access, and cloud storage for low-cost archive and DR.

In summary, hybrid combines a petabyte-scalable, high-performance on-premises backup target with seamless cloud storage integration. Together they let you retain a familiar workflow while ensuring success on the objectives that matter to you: backup window predictability, and repeatable RTO / RPO.

Start Small and Grow

Best of all, you can start with a small deployment, prove it out, and grow. On-prem S3 storage can be deployed on servers you already have, or deployed as preconfigured appliances.

There are even zero-upfront-cost options using Amazon metered-by-use software from the Amazon Marketplace.

Eight Ways Hybrid Cloud from Cloudian Makes Backup Better

Cloudian is the on-prem storage node in a hybrid storage configuration. It features the industry’s highest level of S3 compatibility, ensuring full interoperability with Veritas, Commvault, and Rubrik.

The Cloudian architecture is a scale-out storage cluster comprised of shared-nothing storage nodes. Your media servers connect to the on-prem Cloudian cluster via Ethernet and communicates via an S3-compatible API. Your backup software views the cluster exactly as it views cloud storage. It stores data to Cloudian exactly as it would to cloud storage.

The difference with Cloudian vs cloud alone is that all recent backups are stored locally for quick recovery when needed. Policy-based migration then allows older snapshots to be migrated to the public cloud. This frees up local capacity, and also provides an offsite copy for DR use.

Here are eight ways this helps:

1) Performance to handle the largest environments

Cloudian scales to petabytes with a scaling model that grows in both capacity and bandwidth. Predictable backup windows result from Cloudian’s high streaming bandwidth: Writes in excess of 5000 MB/s can be achieved, or 18TB per hour.

2) Petabyte-scalable

You can start small with just three nodes, and scale to petabytes simply by adding nodes. Scaling is seamless and does not require downtime.

3) 70% less cost than conventional disk

Built on industry-standard hardware, Cloudian drives down the cost of on-prem, disk-based storage to 1¢/GB/month or less, depending on capacity.

4) Manage one data pool

Cloudian maintains data in a single pool across all nodes. You get one-to-many auto-replication, enhancing data durability. No need to juggle what’s “active” or “passive,” create complex policies and snapshot management techniques, or track which sites are replicating to where.

5) Distributed architecture for global data protection

Enterprises struggle to manage backup at remote offices. With Cloudian, clustered nodes can be deployed globally and interconnected, thus allowing data to be automatically replicated across sites.  Because the nodes form a single namespace, you can implement policy-based data migration to the cloud for DR purposes. You get global data protection with fast local recovery, all managed from a single location.

6) Deploy as appliances, or on your own servers

Cloudian is built on industry-standard hardware. You have the flexibility to buy either pre-configured, fully supported appliances, or software for installation on the servers you choose. Either way, you benefit from the value of commodity hardware.

7) Drop-in integration

Cloudian can be immediately integrated with backup software packages that support cloud storage, including Veritas NetBackup, Veritas Backup Exec, Commvault Simpana and Rubrik. Cloudian is viewed exactly as cloud storage for both backup and recovery. For information that has been migrated to the cloud, Cloudian transparently retrieves that data and presents it to the media server.

8) Start small, even at zero upfront cost

Contact Cloudian to get started. We can even show you options that get you started at zero upfront cost, with Cloudian from the Amazon Marketplace.

For more information, read the Backup Solutions Note or specific data protection solutions with

Configuration Guides for Veritas and Commvault are also available.

  • Veritas
  • Commvault

Shifting Technology Habits and the Growth of Object Storage

Technology is, for many of us, a vital and inextricable part of our lives. We rely on technology to look up information, keep in touch with friends and family, monitor our health, entertain ourselves, and much more.

space

However, technology wasn’t always so ubiquitous – it wasn’t too long ago that our wireless phones had limited features and even fewer users actually using these features. Here’s the breakdown from 2004, according to a study from the Yankee Group:

This means that just over 10 years ago, less than 50% of cell phones had internet access and less than 10% had cameras. Even with 50% of phones having internet access, only 15% of users took advantage of this feature.

pew research center

By contrast, look at this survey conducted by Pew Research in 2014:

Among the 18-29 age group, text messaging and internet are more frequently used features than phone calls, which is indicative of the tremendous shift in technology use over the past few years. This study doesn’t even cover a major feature that many users use their phones for: pictures. As younger users turn almost exclusively to smartphone cameras for their photos (and, of course, #selfies), they turn to photo-sharing sites to host and display their images.

Photos are just one type of the ever-growing deluge of unstructured data, though. For enterprises, unstructured data also includes emails, documents, videos, audio files, and more. In order for companies to cost-effectively store this data (while keeping it protected and backed up for end-users), many of them are starting to turn to object storage over traditional network-attached storage (NAS).

Some of the benefits of object storage include a lower total cost of ownership (TCO) and the ability to easily scale up as data needs grow. That by itself is not enough, though. With a solution like our very own HyperStore, in addition to the affordable price (as low as 1c per GB per month) and infinite scalability (from tens of terabytes to hundreds of petabytes), we offer easy management and access control, plus strong data protection with both erasure coding and replication settings. You can read about all of HyperStore’s features and benefits here.

Unstructured data use is only going to continue to grow. Smartphones and other data-intensive technologies will only become more prevalent, and you’ll want to be prepared to meet that growth. Learn more about Cloudian’s hardware and software solutions today.

Simplifying Enterprise Data Protection with Rubrik

Data center sprawl can be a real pain to manage, and it’s only made worse when dealing with legacy architecture. As data needs continue to grow exponentially, having an efficient and cost-effective data protection solution in place is more necessary than ever. If you’re still dealing with outdated hardware and software, then it will only become increasingly complex (and frustrating) to deal with data migration, backup, and recovery.

space

Working with Rubrik for Better Data Protection

 

To help address these pain points, Cloudian has partnered with Rubrik to bring simple, seamless, and secure backup and long-term data retention solutions to enterprises.

Rubrik acts as a sort of ‘time machine’ for VMs. Backup software, catalog management, replication, and deduplicated storage are all brought into a single appliance. As a result, you get incredible ease of use and infinite scalability. Rubrik is able to deliver near-zero recovery times without the need for rehydration.

How Rubrik and Cloudian work together

How Rubrik and Cloudian HyperStore work hand-in-hand to provide efficient and affordable data backup and protection.

How Cloudian Fits In

 

Rubrik serves as a smart on-ramp to Cloudian HyperStore – no additional software installations or plugins necessary to connect the two. This, in turn, lets IT automate backup, replication, and archival via a policy-based engine. By sending the deduplicated data to HyperStore, IT can save money on data transfer and storage costs.

Furthermore, Cloudian HyperStore is fully software-defined with no affinity to hardware. It is a scale-out, 100% native S3 object storage platform designed for large but flexible storage solutions – ideal for storing unstructured data and content. HyperStore is robust and durable, but also flexible, and we kept ease of management and usability in mind from the start. Additionally, HyperStore provides seamless tiering and replication to public cloud providers such as AWS, Glacier, and other S3-compatible endpoints, including tape.

You can read more about Cloudian HyperStore’s features and benefits here.

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Having ironclad data protection in place is vital. Read more about how Rubrik and Cloudian can help in our joint solution brief.

Cloudian HyperStore Integration with Symantec NetBackup

Starting with Symantec NetBackup 7.7, administrators will find an exciting new feature for cloud storage backup: Cloudian HyperStore®. The NetBackup Cloud Storage Connector enables the NetBackup software to back up data to and from Cloudian HyperStore straight out of the box without additional software installations or plugins. HyperStore is an option in the “Cloud Storage Server Configuration Wizard”. Users can simply add their S3 account information such as endpoint, access key, and secret key to begin the process of backing up their data to Cloudian HyperStore storage.

cloudian hyperstore 4000

Cloudian HyperStore and Symantec NetBackup together deliver the following benefits:

  • Enterprise-level backup
  • Complete integrated data center solution: computing, networking, and storage
  • Reduced total cost of ownership (TCO) that continues to improve as the solution scales out
  • Operational efficiency
  • Agility and scalability with the scale-out architectures of Cloudian HyperStore
  • Complete Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) API–compatible geographically federated object storage platform
  • Enterprise-class features: multi-tenancy, quality of service (QoS), and dynamic data placement in a completely software-defined package
  • Policy-based tiering between on-premises hybrid cloud storage platform and any S3 API–compliant private or public cloud
  • Investment protection: mix and match different generations and densities of computing platforms to build your storage environment; more than 400 application vendors support S3

The seamless integration allows IT Departments to manage cloud storage for backup and recovery as easily as on-premise storage, but with lower costs. Finally, this integrated solution helps deliver an automated and policy-based backup and recovery solution. Organizations can also leverage the cloud as a new storage tier or as a secondary off-site location for disaster recovery.

For more information, please see the Symantec NetBackup and Cloudian HyperStore Solution Brief.

 

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